Advent 2011

inkspot

Beloved Disciple
Royal Guard
Emeritus
Surprised no one started this thread when Advent season began on November 26. Oh well, no worries -- we can start now. Post in here your Advent traditions, readings, writings, everything to help us prepare for the coming of the Christchild.

Here is a lovely poem by GK Chesterton, "The House of Christmas"

There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay on their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.

A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.

This world is wild as an old wives' tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.
 
we have an advent wreath at home, however I was surprised to find out that it's practiced in America as well. I thought it was a German thing :D

however, our's seems to me unusual as it's supended and uses red candles instead of purple and lacks the Jesus candle (the pole holding the wreath up has the Star of David though).
 
I've been meaning to get to it, but swamped, y'know. Thanks for doing this, Ink, now that Advent's more than halfway over. Gaudete!
 
My daughter led our family Advent Candle time this past Sunday and had us all write what Christmas means to us. Here is my poem:

Christmas!
Hearts ponder and prepare to
Receive the Reality of
Immanuel (God with Us), our
Savior and Hope.
Time to gather and sing
Merry carols and Rejoice!
Advent worship: Wise Men
Still Seek Him.

My son is missing our family Advent celebrations for the first time since he doesn't fly home from college till the 17th. So my daughter and I were texting him pictures each day that go along with our impromptu version of the 17 Days of Advent (we kept sending them till he got home and could join our family in our daily Advent devotionals). Here is how our song turned out:

On the seventeenth day of Advent my sister gave to me
Seventeen dollars to spe-nd
Sixteen Cocoa Balls
Fifteen Zs in Chapel
Fourteen feet a-tapping
Thirteen fish a-swiming
Twelve jolly toothbrushes
Eleven Creche figures
Ten giant snowflakes
Nine Nativity scenes
Eight growling Yorkies
Seven sheep and donkeys
a Six-pointed Star
Five golden tees
Four CHRISTmas candles
Three wise kings
Two Advent Calendars
and a picture of Ti-ffany!


(Tiffany is our beagle and Morgan is my mom's Yorkie that we have inherited. Here is a sample picture from Day 12 "twelve jolly toothbrushes" below)
 

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ROFL! I love it, Benisse! He must be so happy to receive each day's message!

Soldier, you should post a photo of your advent wreath if you can.
 
My mother makes an Advent wreath and we put the four candles in it... Normally we have this cute plastic Baby Jesus in the center, but we couldn't find him! :( Also, I have to watch the first Narnia soon, it was it's birthday a few weeks ago. VDT came out a year ago on Saturday when we got our tree:)

Oh! Another tradition is when we go to my town's annual tree-lighting (my father lights the tree, which I named Dylan for no apparent reason!) We come back, eat hot dogs(YUM!) and watch Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas and Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. It's kind of a Disney-filled night, since one of Walt's favorite foods was hot dogs!!!!
 
One year, we did an Advent candle thing, where we lit a candle each Sunday night and read part of the Christmas story. That quickly became a thing of the past, as it only lasted one year. We've never been big on advent stuff.

But, this year, I've been keeping up (for the most part) with Dr. David Jeremiah's Virtual Advent Calendar, available here. I highly recommend viewing these, as they are pretty entertaining each day; however, you cannot access the previous day(s) until, I think, the 25th.
 
One year, we did an Advent candle thing, where we lit a candle each Sunday night and read part of the Christmas story. That quickly became a thing of the past, as it only lasted one year. We've never been big on advent stuff.

But, this year, I've been keeping up (for the most part) with Dr. David Jeremiah's Virtual Advent Calendar, available here. I highly recommend viewing these, as they are pretty entertaining each day; however, you cannot access the previous day(s) until, I think, the 25th.
Thanks for posting that calendar AK. I'll follow it from now on (even though it's more than halfway through!
 
Nice traditions everyone! I've been slow on the uptake in a way, for advent this year, but this week and next week I'm doing a kind of advent blog on the week days at
www.jesusandjaxyworld.com

You can read Monday and Tuesday's here:
http://jesusandjaxyworld.com/advent...-december_24/advent_archives_week_3_dec_12-16

My premise is: Advent is the season of joyful anticipation of Christ's birth, but for non-believers, WE have to be His advent, we have to show that Christ is alive in us -- because they don't have anywhere else to look for Him.
 
It never snows where I live, but some dear friends brought over nine giant snowflakes, made from recycled 6-pack plastic rings. Each snowflake is made from 16 sets of those plastics, which means each individual snowflake represents 96 (16x6) cans of soda. But since we have Nine of them in all that means 864 sodas were consumed in the making of our gift!!! I asked my friend how in the world she did it and she said it took Years to collect that many plastic ringsets even with her husband buying sodas for his office regularly...

So we have two hanging over our kitchen table, and seven hanging across our front porch...
 

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Well lets see; I have an Advent calender that starts on December 1st and is supposed to go to the 24th. However /I/ always start a day late so that I can do the last one on Christmas. Its a really cute calender where every day you put up a new piece/person from the first Christmas (like the sheperds, the wise men, Mary, Joseph, the sheep, the Star, ect.) and I've had it since I was little.

And for the 12 days of Christmas this year my grandparents have been giving me little gifts every day (I go to their house after school) like chocolate and pretzels and window stick-ons, stuff like that.:D
 
Growing up Protestant, I didn't know the 12 Days of Christmas started on Christmas Day until my sister became Episcopalian and learned all about the Church calendar. Now I really dig the seasons of the Calendar, and I think it's cool -- the 12 days from the birth of Jesus to Epiphany, when we celebrate the revelation of Christ to the Gentile in the arrival of the kings, right?

Mozart, your Advent calendar sounds very sweet. And bonus getting 12 days of gifts from your grandparents!
 
For years and years our family has gone through Jesse Tree, a set of 21 devotions focusing on various prophecies and images of Christ in the Old Testament. We have a 4-candle advent wreath that we hang tiny ornaments that go along with each of the devotions.

One of them is a big fish for Jonah (cf. Matthew 12:38-42), and the Jonah devotion involves someone reading through that book while others (usually our kids) act it out. This year my son read through Jonah and so we parents got to act it out -- starring me as Jonah, my husband as the Big Fish and my daughter as sound effects and everyone else.
 
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Very cool!

Here is my blog from today ... Hope you enjoy it ...

They call the apostle John the “beloved disciple,” because that’s how he labeled himself in his writings — “the disciple whom Jesus loved” — and also “John the Revelator,” because he received the vision and wrote the book of Revelation.

I like both titles, but today I want you to see how apropos “John the Revelator” is, because from the very first John is revealing Jesus to us, showing us exactly who He is. In Luke we get a pretty story of a baby in a manger, in Matthew we get a lineage that shows how royal Jesus’ bloodline was.

In John we get, “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is God!, John wants to shout at us. And later, in 1 John 4:8, he reveals more: “God is Love.”

Here is the crux of John’s Christmas story:

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

Mary’s boy-child was the “Word made flesh.”

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail incarnate Deity ...

God with man is now residing, yonder shines the infant Light ...

Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel ...

Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing — oh come let us adore Him ...

Joy to the world, the Lord is come ...


Ah, it is all true, literally true, God with man is now residing. Love with us is now residing! The Word has been made flesh, that which is perfect has come, and our only response is to receive Him.

Let love in this Christmas.
 
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